Maybe the mothers of yesteryear were exaggerating a bit when they said sitting to close to the TV (or watching it in the dark) would ruin our eyes. The real danger is walking around with smartphones in our hands all the time.
New research indicates a surprising rate of teenagers and children, some as young as seven years old, developing what’s being called “text neck,” a condition similar to having a hunched back, due to the number of hours spent looking down at devices.
James Carter, an Australian chiropractor and former governor of the Australian Spinal Research Foundation, told the Daily Mail Australia that the “relatively new condition can lead to anxiety and depression as well as spinal damage.” Half of his patients are teenagers, still in school, whose necks “can be seen to have a backwards curve. It can be degenerative, often causing head, neck, shoulder and back pain.”
Some of his patients fall over during the course of a heel-to-toe test, he told the paper. With an average of four hours spent staring at smartphones and tablets daily, some users are looking at 1,400 hours a year with their necks crunch, causing damage that could require surgery to correct.
Read here for more information on the problem and what can be done to solve it. (Just kidding– we love our technology.)
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